Beyond gross manipulation of corticostriatal circuits

A nice behind-the-scenes look in Noah Gray’s post discussing this article studying connections between the striatum and basal ganglia mice. Here’s what the reviewers were wondering:

[They] also raised general novelty issues, since it is well-known from many brain areas that any manipulation of circuits on a gross level can lead to innervation changes. A somewhat broad damnation, but worth considering nonetheless. This criticism also related to the next, namely that to really make a valuable contribution to the competitive field of circuit development, the authors would need to expand this study further, supplying additional data allowing a better understanding of other components within the circuit. For example, exploring how exactly the corticostriatal inputs influence basal ganglia synaptogenesis. It begged the question: do the authors understand the physiology and timing well enough to predict how their manipulations would affect the striatum, not by disrupting the striatum itself, but through control of the descending cortical circuits?

Here is an earlier BL post on MSNs in the striatum, which the authors of this article selectively silence as a part of their circuit manipulation.